Bill Gates' Dissociative Mistake
His Pre-COP30 Climate Letter Reveals Near-Delusional Dissociation (Vol. 5; Issue 44)
Like any of us fallible humans, Bill Gates’ public stature does not prevent him from dissociating from reality. We all share the same vulnerability. Although we have an ocular blind spot preventing our fully perceiving the visual field, we look out at the world and “see” a complete picture. In like manner, our consciousness hides much from us. It, too, has blind spots. And, of course, we certainly cannot see our unconscious minds. Gates’ dissociative error, unlike any such mistake made by the average human mind, is egregious. He wields immense power. His letter risks damaging civilization while, at the same time, revealing his own elitism and racism.*
Gates’ blunder, which appeared in a widely disseminated letter last month, downplays the risk of global warming. He wrote the memo in advance of the COP30** meeting held in Brazil last week. Gates starts by citing a catastrophic view of climate change, but then describes these predictions as “wrong.” He adds:
Although climate change will have serious consequences—particularly for people in the poorest countries—it will not lead to humanity’s demise. People will be able to live and thrive in most places on Earth for the foreseeable future.
Gates encourages the international community to emphasize improving human lives over striving to wean us from fossil fuels. He continues:
The doomsday outlook is causing much of the climate community to focus too much on near-term emissions goals, and it’s diverting resources from the most effective things we should be doing to improve life in a warming world.
Gates’ dissociative problem appears in his failure to acknowledge that many of the less developed countries, such as those in Sub-Saharan Africa like Chad, Somalia, South Sudan and the Central African Republic, lack the resources to adapt to the warming climate. And, they are already impacted by it. Further, their situations will only worsen as will the status of countries vulnerable to extreme weather and drought, such as Pakistan and Afghanistan. People living in those countries lack the resources to immigrate to cooler climates; Northern countries hardly want any immigrants anyway. Many low-lying island nations are also at risk, and some will literally cease to exist.
Given Gates’ obvious care for others, one hesitates to call him a racist. Nonetheless, his letter seems an attempt to cozy up to the petrochemical states that strive to exert excessive influence on the UN. In brief, Gates seems willing to surrender the lives of dark-skinned humans rather than aggressively reducing fossil fuel and animal agriculture emissions.
You hardly need advanced knowledge of global warming to understand how little funding or health assistance will help these countries without working, even more arduously, to bring global temperatures down. Global warming brings as much weird weather as hot weather. For example, in 2022, Pakistan suffered from severe flooding that killed some 1,700 people, impacted 33 million and caused 8 million to be displaced. The disaster also caused $30 billion in damages. Chad is often cited as the most vulnerable country on Earth for the same reasons. Somalia endures persistent drought, food crises and civil war. Why not offer these countries aid while, at the same time, addressing global warming? And nations in cooler areas still suffer increases in pulmonary diseases from the greenhouse gases.
Joining the Gates parade, the Trump administration just pressured UN officials to kill a historic deal to slash pollution from cargo ships. More than 100 nations were poised to approve the plan. It would have imposed a fee on heavily polluting vessels and pushed the industry to clean itself up.
Rather than support the climate-protecting measure, Trump Administration officials like Marco Rubio bullied countries to prevent them from passing the proposed multi-country agreement. They threatened these countries with tariffs, sanctions, and the revocation of diplomats’ US visas. They effectively buried the climate-saving measure. Much like Gates’ letter, their actions also reveal how the profits of petrochemical companies matter more than the lives of human beings.
Ironically, one area where Gates is correct further validates his dissociated state. He notes that:
Climate change is a serious problem, but it will not be the end of human civilization.
Hooray that some of humanity survives. However, too bad for the people of color living in the hottest areas on earth. Let’s be reassured that some of us will survive, and they will be, of course, the richest and most mobile ones. Those poorer people, as just noted, can expect war, dislocation, famine, and mass death. The 2023 report of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (IPCC, 2023), a synthesis of 14,000 peer-reviewed research studies, presents these worst-case scenarios likely by 2100:
The climate will warm by 8.5° C, destroying 99 percent of the world’s coral reefs, melting 80 percent of Alpine glaciers, and raising sea levels by three feet. By 2030, extreme meteorological events such as heatwaves, droughts, wildfires, hurricanes and flooding will become increasingly regular occurrences. Global warming is expected to create 200 million refugees by 2050. The report’s authors believe insufficient time remains to prevent the death of half of humanity. Many will die of malnutrition, heatstroke, or dehydration; crop failures, mass migrations, and military conflicts will kill others.
In further confirmation, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the UN’s principal judicial body, ruled just last summer that nations have a legal obligation to protect the environment from greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. If they fail to do so, they could be liable for making full reparations to those harmed or killed. Obviously, the US government and Bill Gates do not fear such legal liability. It is, nonetheless, noteworthy that the world’s only international court understands the perils facing humanity through the ever-increasing spewing of GHG.
German climate activist and co-organizer of the School Strike for Climate, Luisa Neubauer, coined the word Greenlash to describe the type of retreats displayed by Gates, Rubio, and their like. In an article she wrote for the Economist, Neubauer notes that:
Whether the Greenlash continues, or gives way to new momentum for climate action, will be determined not only by elections, economic developments or Donald Trump’s latest views. It will also depend on the tone and clarity of public discourse, and on the stories we tell ourselves… If common politics doesn’t grow a spine, then public commentators must—for the sake of, well, everything.
Dissociation is a common type of ego defense mechanism. If you consider the mind as, by analogy, a complicated mansion, then dissociation occurs when certain rooms are sealed off. Gates is a brilliant man, a person who, thus far, has been one of the greatest philanthropists in the history of humankind. Nonetheless, his October letter reveals that his walled-off rooms contain desperation, even death, for most people of color living in the most climate vulnerable regions of the Earth. His elitism is apparent. He already lives in a cooler area, namely the Pacific Northwest. He could live in the Arctic Circle if he so chose.
We all close off rooms in our mansions, but some beg to be opened. We need “the stories we tell ourselves” to be more inclusive. They need to be less controlled by greed and less contained by denial. In brief, and as Neubauer argues, we global citizens must “grow a spine.” Weaning off fossil fuels and reducing consumption of industrialized animal products provides the metaphorical calcium and connective tissue to strengthen our vertebral columns. Many additional steps will be needed, but decreasing our use of these two poisonous resources represents a significant move forward.
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*Calling someone a racist is a racist act in and of itself because it both identifies and demonizes a person.
**A UN subcommittee, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC), has held annual meetings called Conference of the Parties (COP) to address global warming. The first COP meeting was held in Berlin, Germany in March, 1995. A kind of tragic irony, the COPs are often sponsored by petrochemical states. In 2023, for example, COP28 was held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber served as the President of COP28; transforming the irony to the corrupt, Al Jaber serves as the UAE’s special envoy for climate change while also being the CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.
***Industrialized animal agriculture is responsible for some 35 percent of greenhouse gas emissions.
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References
Gates, B. (2025). Three tough truths about climate. Gates Notes, published 10/27/25, https://www.gatesnotes.com/home/home-page-topic/reader/three-tough-truths-about-climate
Friedman, L., Bearak, M., and Smialek, J. (2025). Trump Officials Accused of Bullying Tactics to Kill a Climate Measure. New York Times, Published November 6, 2025.
Neubauer, L. (2025). The greenlash is built on lazy thinking, writes a climate activist. The Economist, October/November 2025 Issue.
Stocker, T.F., Qin, D., Plattner, G.K., Tignor, S.K, Allen, J., Boschung, A., Nauels Y., Xia, Y. Bex, V. and Midgley, P.M. (Eds.). (2023). IPCC Climate Change Report: The Physical Science Basis; A Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. New York: Cambridge University Press.